At last, we've reached the thick of it. This is what I was excited to blog about. A different country, a different language, a different currency, a different culture, and a different outlook. It's a country where every day people fight to live, and all too often they lose that battle. It’s a magnificent, heartbreakingly beautiful country. Especially the music, the food, the culture, and a uniquely Mexican, but deeply felt worldview. Its right there, curled up not too far underneath us, it's Mexico.
We've reached the small town of Vicente Guerrero, on the Baja coast. Located 3.5 hours south of San diego. The Mexican border was fast, and the paperwork was dealt with. Its now our forty first day of travelling, our fifth day in Mexico, and our fourth night at the orphanage. We've been having lots of fun helping out at the orphanage here. Jobs ranging from taking out the trash, to playing with the kids in the Cuna. However we've only reached a short distance from the border, and we can already see the immense amount of poverty, and the difficulties in every day life.
Over the years the middle class of Mexico has slowly eroded, into what is now a divided country. A place where the rich get richer, and the poor slowly get ground under the wheel. The quickest way to make money now, is by selling drugs. So the increase in murders is related to this. Every day Mexico wakes up to count the dead, and they are after all, left out to be seen. Usually with a helpful note saying whose done what, and generally speaking, why. There seems to be a language to this never-ending violence, a message in the twists and marks of the bodies. More Mexican civilians have been killed since 2006, then all the American military lost in the ten years of the Vietnam war, and the eight years of war in Iraq, combined. In the past decade there has been over 100 000 deaths, not to mention the 27 000 people pronounced "missing". Over 100 of these being deaths/disappearances of journalists over the past decade, in order to hide the immense amount of corruption.
Mexico is very famous for its corruption, rotting into every level of institutions. Of the seven major cartels, the Sinaloa is considered the most powerful, as it reaches into every level of government, banking and private industries. The cartels are responsible for importing roughly three quarters of all illegal drugs into the U.S.
On the good side, one of the things I absolutely love about entering a different or new country is simply the food. In Mexico one of the ways of preserving culture is by cooking traditional meals, and the food, is amazing. The mole dishes here can take up to two weeks to make. Using traditional methods like grinding corn on stone beds. Not to mention they can include up to thirty-five different types of chilies.
However every night, there is still plenty of evidence of the struggle and discontent, boiling just under the surface. There is without a question, a need to stop this war. It’s a war where were killing our sons and daughters. There is a need to find the peace and justice that this country does not have. A place where people put human life and loving relationships first, that would be a society. There in the center of horror: Life and peace. A society that can say, “this is where the human being is above everything else”
We've reached the small town of Vicente Guerrero, on the Baja coast. Located 3.5 hours south of San diego. The Mexican border was fast, and the paperwork was dealt with. Its now our forty first day of travelling, our fifth day in Mexico, and our fourth night at the orphanage. We've been having lots of fun helping out at the orphanage here. Jobs ranging from taking out the trash, to playing with the kids in the Cuna. However we've only reached a short distance from the border, and we can already see the immense amount of poverty, and the difficulties in every day life.
Over the years the middle class of Mexico has slowly eroded, into what is now a divided country. A place where the rich get richer, and the poor slowly get ground under the wheel. The quickest way to make money now, is by selling drugs. So the increase in murders is related to this. Every day Mexico wakes up to count the dead, and they are after all, left out to be seen. Usually with a helpful note saying whose done what, and generally speaking, why. There seems to be a language to this never-ending violence, a message in the twists and marks of the bodies. More Mexican civilians have been killed since 2006, then all the American military lost in the ten years of the Vietnam war, and the eight years of war in Iraq, combined. In the past decade there has been over 100 000 deaths, not to mention the 27 000 people pronounced "missing". Over 100 of these being deaths/disappearances of journalists over the past decade, in order to hide the immense amount of corruption.
Mexico is very famous for its corruption, rotting into every level of institutions. Of the seven major cartels, the Sinaloa is considered the most powerful, as it reaches into every level of government, banking and private industries. The cartels are responsible for importing roughly three quarters of all illegal drugs into the U.S.
On the good side, one of the things I absolutely love about entering a different or new country is simply the food. In Mexico one of the ways of preserving culture is by cooking traditional meals, and the food, is amazing. The mole dishes here can take up to two weeks to make. Using traditional methods like grinding corn on stone beds. Not to mention they can include up to thirty-five different types of chilies.
However every night, there is still plenty of evidence of the struggle and discontent, boiling just under the surface. There is without a question, a need to stop this war. It’s a war where were killing our sons and daughters. There is a need to find the peace and justice that this country does not have. A place where people put human life and loving relationships first, that would be a society. There in the center of horror: Life and peace. A society that can say, “this is where the human being is above everything else”